Akel comes out against plans to rename Paphos’ Kemal Ataturk Street

Akel expressed its opposition to plans to rename Kemal Ataturk Street in Paphos’ Moutallos neighbourhood, describing the plans as “untimely and inappropriate” after a meeting of the Paphos town council on Monday night. It accused some town councillors of making “systematic efforts” to “rename Turkish streets in the Turkish Cypriot district of Moutallos”. “The issue is particularly sensitive and must be treated with due seriousness. Mouttalos is the Turkish Cypriot neighbourhood in the municipality, which is temporarily inhabited, for the most part, by Greek Cypriot displaced persons who were uprooted due to the Turkish invasion,” it said. It added that the foreign ministry has not yet offered the town council its own position on the plans, despite having “long since been asked” to do so. Related Articles • Ustel bemused by plans to rename Paphos’ Kemal Ataturk Street • Paphos’ Kemal Ataturk Street to be renamed In renaming the street, it said, “we would essentially be implementing ourselves that of which we rightly accuse the Turkish Cypriot side – renaming streets and place names”. “For us, the discussion which is taking place is untimely and inappropriate given the expected developments on the Cyprus issue and the mobility which is being observed. We also do not understand the haste being shown by the acting mayor to raise the issue, given that the foreign ministry has failed to take a position,” it said. It added that “our concern is the just solution to the Cyprus problem and the reunification of our land and people”, and that “the Cyprus problem is a priority and we will fight until we succeed”. “Let the proponents of these plans tell us why it is necessary to take this action. Have they accepted the idea of participation, and of two states?” it asked. It added that “history will be written and will be merciless to those who, with their actions, mistakes, and inactions, lead the Cyprus problem in the wrong direction, [and] those who propose or those who decide on the basis of populism”. “We call on our colleagues in the town council to join us on the right side of history,” he said. Moutallos had been Paphos’ Turkish Cypriot neighbourhood Prior to 1974, Moutallos had historically been the town of Paphos’ Turkish Cypriot community, and the names of the streets in the neighbourhood reflect that fact, often being named after Turkish and Turkish Cypriot historic figures, such as poet Namik Kemal, late Turkish president Ismet Inonu and the Republic of Cyprus’ first vice president Dr Fazil Kucuk. However, since then, with the neighbourhood becoming the home of displaced Greek Cypriots, and the wider Paphos area experiencing an influx of Pontic Greeks following the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, moves have been made to rename some streets bearing names deemed offensive by those communities. Talat Pasha Street was renamed as Justice Street in 2021, with Paphos’ Pontic Greek and Armenian communities pointing out that the late Ottoman grand vizier had been convicted and sentenced to death for organising massacres of Greeks and Armenians during his stint as grand vizier and, earlier, interior minister. While Talat Pasha was sentenced in absentia and thus escaped execution, having escaped to Berlin with the Ottoman Empire facing defeat in the first world war, he was later shot dead during organised assassinations carried out by the Armenian revolutionary federation. Distaste at Mustafa Kemal Ataturk among Pontic Greeks is sourced from the Greco-Turkish war, during which both sides committed sundry atrocities against one another, including massacres, torturing and the burning of towns and villages. Disy councillor put forward bill to rename it ‘Nikos Kapetanidis Street’ Disy councilor Nina Gkaraklidou had told the Cyprus Mail in May that a proposal to change the street’s name to “Nikos Kapetanidis Street” had been approved by a majority of councillors. Kapetanidis was a journalist from the Black Sea city of Rize who published a newspaper in Trabzon, was convicted and sentenced to death during the Amasya trials, which were carried out by the Turkish national movement, which at a national level was led by Kemal, in 1921 in the eponymous Black Sea town. He was one of hundreds to be sentenced to death in Amasya, convicted of agitating for a Greek-led breakaway of the Black Sea region. Gkaraklidou had said that the fact that the street was named after the Republic of Turkey’s founding president Mustafa Kemal Ataturk “creates and provokes a painful emotional reflection” among Moutallos’ current residents. “Street names are not simply practical markings, but reflect our values, roots, history and choices,” she said, adding that she had chosen to propose the renaming of the street “with the awareness of the burden and responsibility towards the truth and future generations”. File photo: Unal Ustel Ustel said plans ‘reveal true face of Greek Cypriot side’s mentality’ However, Turkish Cypriot ‘prime minister’ Unal Ustel, himself a Paphos native, had said that the plan “clearly reveals the true face of the Greek Cypriot side’s mentality”. “The Greek Cypriot side, which makes calls for ‘peace’ and ‘goodwill’, is attempting to change the names of streets bearing the name of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey, our nation’s leader, and a man in whose footsteps the Turkish Cypriot people are proud to walk,” he said. He added that “the Turkish Cypriot people, as in the past, will continue to uphold their values, their flag, their state, and their ties with their motherland, Turkey”, before saying that “the Turkish Cypriot people have always respected the religious values, flag, and sacred things belonging to the Greek Cypriot community”. “Our people expect the same from the other side,” he said. He then said that the planned renaming of the street serves to “completely destroy trust between the communities” and “serve conflict, not peace, and enmity, not friendship”. “The path to lasting peace and tranquillity on this island lies in mutual respect. However, such actions taken by circles which cannot tolerate the Turkish presence and are driven by dreams of Enosis are undermining trust between the two peoples,” he said.